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Showing posts with the label TU-160

Blast from the Past: Soviet-Era Tu-160M2 Is More Lethal Than Ever ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

Tupolev TU-160 Black Jack ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Alex Beltyukov)  Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar Russia’s upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 Blackjack supersonic bomber is expected to make its first flight in 2019. Moscow currently has sixteen of the original version of the Mach 2.0-capable bomber, which are the last surviving examples of the thirty-five aircraft built by the Soviet Union before its demise. Moscow hopes to build fifty new Tu-160M2 aircraft to upgrade its aging strategic bomber force. “I believe that in 2019 this plane, upgraded and manufactured, will make its maiden flight,” Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces told the Moscow-based TASS News Agency on March 2. Russia made the decision to extend the development of the Tupolev PAK-DA in favor of the Tu-160M2 in 2015. Serial production of the new Blackjack variant is expected to start in 2023. According to Russia’s deputy defense ministe

Russia's Supersonic Tu-160 Bomber Is Back: Should America Worry? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Tom Nichols)

Russian TU-160 Strategic Bomber ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Vitaly V. Kuzmin) Source- The National Interest Author- Tom Nichols Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced recently that Russia is going to begin production of the Tu-160, a Soviet-era bomber known as the “Blackjack.” The Tu-160 is a nuclear platform, basically something like the Soviet version of an American B-1 bomber: a big, heavy, swing-wing bomber meant to deliver nuclear weapons at long distances. The Soviets built about thirty-five of them in the 1980s, of which only fifteen remain in service. So what does this mean to the strategic balance between the United States and the Russian Federation in 2015? In reality, it means absolutely nothing in military terms. As a political signal, however, Shoigu’s announcement is just the latest in a series of provocations. No American response is required and none would matter. The Blackjack, assuming the Russians even manage to build a

Know the weapon- Bomber Aircrafts

B-2 Spirit (Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Air force) A  bomber  is a  military aircraft  designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping  bombs  on them, firing  torpedoes  at them, or, more recently, by launching  cruise missiles  at them History: The first use of an air-dropped bomb (actually a hand grenade) was carried out by Italian Lieutenant  Giulio Gavotti [1]  during the  1911 Italo-Turkish war in Libya , although his plane was not designed for the task of bombing, and his improvised attack had little impact. The first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the  Italian   Caproni Ca 30  and  British   Bristol T.B.8 , both of 1913. [2]  The Bristol T.B.8 was an early  British  single  engined   biplane  built by the  Bristol Aeroplane Company . They were fitted with a prismatic  Bombsight  in the front  cockpit and a cylindrical bomb carrier in the lower forward fuselage capable of carrying twelve 10 lb (4.5 kg) b